Metula elementary school and kindergarten open for first time since war

For the first time since October 2023, Metula has reopened its Hanadiv Elementary School, with 36 students in grades one to six and 18 in kindergarten.

“This is very good news,” Mayor David Azoulay tells The Times of Israel as he stands at the school entrance welcoming students, parents and teachers.

Metula is Israel’s northernmost community, located near the Lebanon border, which has been the site of heavy fighting over the past three years.

Residents of the picturesque village were evacuated for more than a year in the aftermath of the October 7, 2023, Hamas massacre in southern Israel, when Lebanese terror group Hezbollah opened a second front against Israel. Hezbollah rockets and drones damaged many of the village’s buildings, including the school, which has been renovated.

A Metula spokesperson says that roughly 65% of the town’s residents on the Israel-Lebanon border have returned.

“When I went to school here in the 1980s, we had 17 kids in each grade,” Shimon Gino, a lawyer who grew up in Metula, tells The Times of Israel. He says his wife and four children have returned after being evacuated during the war.

“One of my daughters started first grade during COVID and then went through the war in two different schools. Now she’s back here. It won’t be easy, but kids can adjust. They’re very excited,” he said.